Ray Guns Near Crossroads to the Battlefield [Slide Show]

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REAL RAY GUN This vision of a ray gun or blaster straight from sci-fi fantasy is not exactly what it first seems. U.S. Air Force Capt. Drew Goettler demonstrates the Personnel Halting and Stimulation Response, or PHaSR, a non-lethal laser weapon. The PHaSR was developed by the ScorpWorks team at the Air Force Research Laboratory's Directed Energy Directorate, Kirtland AFB, N.M., to help protect troops and control hostile crowds by using low-power laser light to dazzle the eyes of potential assailants. PHOTO COURTESY OF U.S. AIR FORCE RESEARCH LABORATORY'S DIRECTED ENERGY DIRECTORATE

FREE ELECTRON LASER The U.S. Navy is supporting research on free-electron lasers (FELs) that can produce more than a single wavelength of laser energy, which may help naval beam weapons better penetrate sea haze. FELs rely on a wiggler or undulator, an array of magnets with alternating poles that causes an electron beam to oscillate and so emit a certain wavelength of laser light. Changing the field alters the wavelength. COURTESY OF LAWRENCE BERKELEY NATIONAL LABORATORY

THIN-ZAG Researchers at Textron Defense have developed a high-powered solid-state, or slab, laser based on what they call their Thin-Zag design. After semiconductor diodes pump photons into the walls of slender ceramic slabs located at the center of the device, a powerful, high-quality beam forms in the special zigzag-shaped lasing cavity that they form. ILLUSTRATION COURTESY OF THE TEXTRON DEFENSE DIVISION OF TEXTRON SYSTEMS CORPORATION

SOLID-STATE WEAPON A view of Northrop Grumman’s laboratory test rig, which a few years ago first demonstrated that solid-state, or electric, lasers could produce a high-quality, 100-kilowatt beam, a so-called entry-level, or minimum weapons-grade, power capability--enough to destroy a moving target from a kilometer or two away. Other contractors such as Textron Defense have also developed their own weapons-grade laser technology. PHOTO COURTESY OF NORTHROP GRUMMAN AEROSPACE SYSTEMS

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ADVANCED TACTICAL LASER A specially modified C-130H aircraft equipped with Boeing’s Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) weapon system fired its 100-kilowatt (kW) COIL laser and hit a ground target while flying over White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. Future similar airborne beam weapons may be able to damage, disable or destroy targets with little or no collateral damage to non-combatants and their property. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE MISSILE DEFENSE SYSTEMS DIVISION OF THE BOEING COMPANY

BALLISTIC MISSILE INTERCEPTOR The U.S. Air Force’s YAL-1A, a modified Boeing 747-400F airliner known as the Airborne Laser (ABL) testbed, has successfully intercepted a boost-phase ballistic missile in-flight by firing its high-energy, 1-megawatt (MW) chemical oxygen iodine laser (COIL) at it. Although chemical lasers are powerful, they have fallen out of favor of Pentagon planners because they remain energy-inefficient and require the safe handling of potentially dangerous chemical reactants in the field. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE MISSILE DEFENSE SYSTEMS DIVISION OF THE BOEING COMPANY

LASER AVENGER Boeing’s Laser Avenger, an in-house technology project that mounts an energy-efficient, though relatively low-power, fiber laser weapon and targeting system on a Humvee, has been demonstrated to be effective against visible ground targets such as improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and unexploded ordnance (UXOs), and has also tracked three small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) before shooting one down. If engineers can develop much higher-power fiber lasers, a big if, the technology may end up on future ground and airborne combat vehicles. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE MISSILE DEFENSE SYSTEMS DIVISION OF THE BOEING COMPANY

ARMY CONCEPT FIELD LASER The U.S. Army hopes to better protect our troops by fielding in the next few years a mobile, ground-based laser weapon that can zap out of the sky multiple incoming rockets, missiles, or mortars. Live-fire tests of the compact, 100-kilowatt-class, solid-state laser technology’s capabilities for precision targeting and area defense missions are to begin by the end of this year. PHOTO COURTESY OF NORTHROP GRUMMAN AEROSPACE SYSTEMS

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